In That Moment
by nalupokemonfreak
Summary: Natsu and Lucy have always thought to love each other in a family like manner... THOUGHT. Live through their ups and downs, and learn what they both think when they hear 'love'.
1. Chapter 1: New Day, New Quests

**NOTE: I KNOW SOME PEOPLE SKIP THESE BUT PLEASE READ! OK, so I don't write like other people, I write REALLY weird. I write short chapters. So if they seem bunched together in odd places, it's because I write them in seperate files and then combine them. So, sorry, but bear with me here!**

Chapter 1: New Day, New Quests

Lucy breathed it all in: The peace, the serenity of the morning sun peaking through her pastel curtains. She felt like she was forgetting something, something that was going to happen... Eh, she'll probably remember later. She's probably just tired.

_**BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. **_"Lucy! Come on, Lucy, let us in! We're hungry!" Oh. That was it. It was that, no matter where she was, noisy uno and noisy dous were SURE to be lurking around some corner. Oh, wait, scratch that. They couldn't _lurk_. They're too loud. _**BOOM BOOM BOOM. **_"Alright, Lucy, you asked for it!" Lucy saw a bright light down the stairwell, and groaned. _Come ON, Natsu. Really? AGAIN? _Lucy deeply wished for some of that serenity that was here fleetingly moments before, but knew it wasn't going to happen, so she sat up.

"Lucy! Still in bed? Get up, get up, we have to do a job!" Lucy shrugged the heavy comforter off her shoulders and stretched her arms. She looked at the clock. "Natsu, it is SEVEN IN THE MORNING. I LIKE TO _SLEEP IN_." Natsu tilted his head, as if he had never heard the concept before. "Igneel always made me get up when the stars go away... He says that's when the dream is over and the reality has begun..." Natsu got that faraway look in his eyes, the one you see and KNOW who he's thinking of. _Way to make something petty turn into something heartfelt, Natsu. But I guess that's why I... _Lucy shook her head and got up. Only when she was up did she realize...

"Lucy..." Natsu tried to smother his oncoming smile. "You're wearing underwear and a shirt." Lucy looked down and shrieked. Then it somehow became Natsu's fault ("A girl needs some time ALONE in the morning!") and she threw a pillow at him. She chased him out of her room and closed the door, sliding down to the floor. She put her head in her hands. _Dang Natsu... What am I gonna do about you... _And then, unconciously, she smiled.

"Lucy! Come on!" "Aye!" Lucy laughed a bit and shoved herself off the ground. "Alright, alright, wait a few minutes. Did I forget to mention that I'm a whiz at getting dressed?"

Lucy was correct: 30 seconds and she was down the stairs wearing a cute blue outfit and her typical-always-present celestial keys pouch/belt. Natsu looked up in surprise when she skidded to a stop in front of front of him, and he smiled. "Guess you're right. You DO get dressed fast." Lucy smiled at him, and, tugging Happy out of her fridge, they set off for Fairy Tail.

"Yes, but Natsu, the job says THREE people." Natsu gestured to Happy. "We've got Happy." Lucy flourished the job request in her hand in his face. "Natsu, read that little bit at the bottom." Natsu squinted and read out loud, "Animals do NOT count. I need three MAGES." Lucy grinned smugly. Natsu sighed. "Dang, I really wanted that job. Your rent, food, AND a good adventure. Well, back to the job board!" Lucy grabbed his collar and pulled him back. "Wait, wait, wait. WHY are we not just getting someone else to join us?" Natsu shrugged. "I just don't work well with anyone but you and Happy. And, WHY doesn't Happy count? He can FLY." Lucy shrugged back. She rattled off a list of names, all of which Natsu said no to, with explisite disgust and distaste for Gajeel and Gray.

"Well, no job for us then. It's already noon, if we don't get a third mage soon, we can kiss that job AND my rent goodbye." "AND me and Happy's food money!" Just then, someone tapped Lucy on the shoulder, and Lucy turned. "Excuse me, but you need a third mage?" Natsu IMMEDIATLY opened his mouth to say NO, but Gray Fullbuster held up a finger. "I wanna help. No charge." Lucy glanced out Natsu out of her periphial vision and quickly nodded, hushing Natsu's frantic protests. "Natsu, you've been on missions together before! You actually work... Quite well together!" Natsu, so stubborn, screamed NO and grabbed Lucy's arm.

"WE'RE Team Natsu and Lucy and Happy. WE are going, ALONE. Gray, stop following us." Gray jogged to catch up, and frowned. "Team _Natsu and Lucy and Happy_? What kind of a name is that?" Natsu opened his mouth to answer, but Gray answered "A STUPID one. How about... Team Lucy?" Lucy furrowed her eyebrows and Natsu shrugged and said smugly, "As long as your name has NOTHING associated with it, I'm fine with-" "No. How about Team Natsu?" Natsu looked hesitently at Lucy, then grinned at Gray who was grinding his teeth together. "Sure. Team NaLu." Lucy gave him a questioning glance. "Huh?" "Team NaLu. 'Na' for Natsu, and 'Lu' for Lucy! It's prefect. And Gray, go ahead and come! Just know WE'RE in charge."

'Big and Mature In Charge' Natsu ended as soon as the train lurched to life. Literally, five seconds and Natsu was GONE. Lucy ended up with his head in her lap, stroking his hair soothingly. Gray looked on with disgust, knowing full well that if he had to say something, say it when it would go in one flame-head ear and OUT the other. "Why do you put up with that? Doesn't it get... Annoying? Having him as a burden every time you leave town?"

Lucy shrugged. "I don't know, I kind've like it. Makes me feel like someone cares for me and I care for them. Gray's smug aura vanished and he frowed down at flame-brain. How come HE gets all the girls? How come Lisanna AND Lucy prefer NATSU over HIM?! Sure, he had Juvia, but she just got ANNOYING sometimes. He did somewhat like her, though, but that's not the point!

Lucy sighed and it brought his attention to her. Happy lay sleeping like a, well, a cat, and Lucy was smiling contently down at the idiot. Gray swallowed and it felt like hell. Watching her, so close to him, but then not on the same wavelengths. He REALLY liked her, even more then he liked Lisanna Straus all those years ago... He hadn't felt this way in a LONG time. He felt himself begin to sweat, and worried about Lucy looking up to see him looking at her like this. So he looked away, only to find his eyes sliding right back.

The train screeched to a stop, and Natsu jumped up and smiled at Lucy like nothing had happened. He noticed Gray glaring at him. "What's your problem, ice-brain?" Gray shrugged it off, he didn't need this right now. "Nothing." "No, ice-brain, what's your problem? You got a beef with me, you're superior on this quest, say it now." Lucy stepped in between them. "OK, boys, I know we're already here, but SO HELP ME, I'll call ERZA." Gray and Natsu immediatly turned and pleaded, 'no, no, no, no PLEASE O'MERCIFULE ONE!' and Lucy smiled and laughed it off. Gray's heart thumped in his chest, and so did Natsu's, but only the former knew why.


	2. Chapter 2: Mt Eracles

Chapter 2: Mt. Eracles

While they disembarked the train, Lucy told them a few things about the job: There is a family that lived in a house on the edge of a mountain. The moutain is called Mt. Eracles. The family has a little bit of wealth left over from sending their only child to college (she, it turned out, wanted to be a wizard instead of going to school) so they decided to send for a guild. There is a large monster that came once a week, at night. Both of them, being retired wizards, could hold it off for a few more days, but they are very weak already. That's all Lucy knows.

"Sheesh, they just can't catch a break can they?" Gray spoke, walking a little bit behind 'NaLu'. "Why do you say that, Gray?" "Well, Lucy, they saved up money to send their kid to a college nearby, and then she leaves to be a wizard! Then a monster comes to terrorize them in the night, and they have to spend the money anyways!" Lucy nodded, her pony tail's bobbing up an down. "Yeah, that would suck."

The odd group continued walking for maybe an hour, and then they see the moutain peak. It was a very large moutain, and Lucy gulped. "Wait, so that's their house? All the way up THERE?" Gray pointed to a wooden looking house near the top of the peak. They all gulped, even Natsu, who normally would be happy to go hiking. "So we walk all this way to climb THAT?"

...

"OW! Natsu, DON'T LEAN ON ME!" Natsu groaned and Happy fluttered lifelessy by his shoulder. "But, Lucy, I'm TIRED-" "SO AM I!" Lucy and Natsu bickered, but they fell silent when it grew very dark, very suddenly. Gray sped up to them and they all stopped in their tracks. Natsu grabbed Happy and pulled him to his chest, waking him up. "Wha- ACK! WHAT IS THAT?!" Happy pointed at a tree at the end of the path and scurried onto Natsu's back, peeking beyond his neck.

Lucy began to shiver and grabbed Natsu and Gray's arms. This sent a jolt, like electricity, up their arms and they began to shiver, too. Lucy began to walk (a bit slowly) towards the tree. She stopped when a thundering ROAR caused birds to fly from the trees, leaves to shake, and trees to bend. Lucy froze and grabbed the closest thing to her: Natsu. He felt himself being pulled to Lucy suddenly, and she hugged him close. REALLY close.

Gray steamed silently, and Natsu started to stroke Lucy's hair, as she had done for him on the train. "Shh, shh, Lucy. It's OK, I'm sure it's just thunder or something." Natsu looked up to see if anything confirmed this fact, but the skies were just black. Black with no clouds.

...

Lucy refused to walk further for the rest of the night, if it was even NIGHT yet. Natsu still hadn't release her, and Gray just couldn't watch it anymore. He left them be and went to get wood for a fire. Just wood. No tinder, because he had a human candle at his disposal. (He REALLY wished disposal was true...) When he returned, Lucy was just sitting on the ground, he knees pulled up to her chin. She was humming something beneath her breath, and it sounded like a pretty lullaby. It was probably calming her down.

"Gray. Gray. Pst." Gray arched an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder, just to see the pink-haired boy wonder behind him. "WHAT, Natsu?" Natsu motioned him to follow him. Gray sighed and made a big show of how annoyed he was, but Natsu didn't seem fazed. "Gray, I didn't want to freak Lucy out, but..." He pointed down and shifted a few leaves. Gray's eyes instantly widened.

_Lucy - Thoughts_

Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, PLEASE no. PLEASE. It sounds JUST. Like it. Like the monster that has given her nightmares since that day. _Byoki. No. _Her mother, killed by disease. By THE disease. Saving her from that... THING. Byoki... It's roar still sent shivers into her soul, her mother's spirits were the only thing keeping THEM from HER. Lucy had long ago blocked out that memory, but it was all coming back to her...

_End - Lucy - Thoughts_

There were human tracks but they had scales in them, like the human had reptilian skin instead of flesh like them. Gray grabbed his mouth with one hand and scrouched down to get a better look. "I smelled something, too. It smelled... like sick things. DEAD things." Gray looked at Natsu, and they both shared the same feeling for once: fear. Fear for themselves. Fear for the family. Fear for _Lucy. _Lucy! They both turned and ran back to their temporary camp, and sighed in relief when they saw her. Still there, still in shock, but THERE. Those tracks had looked fresh.

_ROAR! _Lucy clenched up again and opened her mouth and screamed. Natsu and Gray ran to her, and she reached out, for anything, ANYTHING, to help her, to ease this fear and tension. Natsu patted her hair and stroked her back, while Gray said soothing things. (_It's OK... We're gonna be fine..."_) But Lucy knew better. They had to get away, NOW, before either of her friends, her LOVED ONES died again. Screw that family, they were nothing to- NO! _What am I THINKING, _Lucy thought. She couldn't do that! She had to help people! It was her JOB.

Little did she know that Natsu and Gray had just thought the same thing.


	3. Chapter 3: The Disease

**NOTE! PLEASE READ! OK, so I know this seems like a late-in-the story thing, but this is only the beginning of their adventures. One just leads into ANOTHER!**

Chapter 3: The Disease

Natsu and Gray knew they had to get Lucy out of here. They had to get to that house. Before they got up, another ROAR shook the ground below them, and they all fell onto their backs. Happy fell off his log and jumped up. "Wha- Ack! It's that thing again! It's the snake lady!" Gray and Natsu looked up and Lucy screamed again, but this time it sounded like, 'Mommy! Mommy!' Before them was something frightning and unheard of, something majestic and powerful.

She had pale white skin, and 4 arms that ended in claws. Her feet were normal, but they had dark green scales with poison practically dripping off them, dissipating with a _hiss _on the hard-packed dirt. The trees behind her writhed and seemed to scream directly into the mages' minds, the pain evident when they crumpled and died. A dark green cloud of mist followed behind her, and it looked toxic. Even when she spoke, it sounded scratchy and like pain as a sound.

"Lucy... Heartfilia... The only victem to ever... Excape me..." Natsu and Gray's horrified looks turned to agression and anger, what had she done to Lucy? Lucy screamed again, and she flailed out of Natsu and Gray's grasps. "No!" she screamed. "No! You can't take them! I won't let you, not like my mom!" She crumpled down in the grass and sobbed into her legs, "Not like my mom," occasionally escaping her tired lips. Natsu and Gray had to force themselves to look away, it was too painful to watch.

"What did you do to Lucy, you monster?" Natsu shouted. "Isn't it obvious? The dead trees, the scaly feet and poison... SHE'S the disease that killed Lucy's mom!" Gray yelled back. The black sky seemed to get even darker, if possible. The monster just a few mere meters away growled, and said, "Yes... Layla Hertfilia... She was powerful... Enough... To save her daughter... But not herself..." Natsu yelled in fury and ran forward. "No, Natsu!" Gray rushed forward to grab his arm, but he missed.

Natsu, at first, just stopped. Then he began to shake. And then cough. And then, he collapsed.

...

Gray had passed out when he'd seen Natsy fall. He awoke with a cool cloth on his forehead, and Lucy screaming. Gray put a hand to his head and felt the cloth there, and he sat up. He was on a couch made entirely of wood, but the cusions beneath him felt nice. There was a nice fire going, too, which felt REALLY nice after the cold blackness of the wilderness. Wait, where was he, anyway?

Lucy was getting really hysterical, and Gray could hear a grand-motherly voice trying to calm her down. The woman he saw crying didn't look like Lucy. Lucy was strong and composed, she was just... broken. She had tear stains on her clothes, and she just kept on crying. When she finally STOPPED crying, she noticed Natsu on the couch on the other side of the room, and she ran over to him. "Gray. GRAY." Gray broke his trance to look at her, wincing at what she knelt before. He knew what was coming. "WHAT happened to him?" Gray sighed and said, in his most monotone voice he could muster, "he ran towards the lady when she mentioned you and your mom... And he collapsed and started coughing..." Lucy gasped and grabbed Natsu's hand, feeling his heartbeat.

"Natsu, you IDIOT!" She yelled out him and tears flew widely from her eyes. Gray knew it was selfish, but he wondered... Would she be acting like this if it was HIM on that couch, half dying inside? Would she be THIS upset if HE died?

Lucy just felt dead inside: Why was it, everytime she found happiness, someone or someTHING came to take it away? Why? Gray got up to talk to her, but she tuned it all out. It turned out that 'Disease' left them and the family they came here to help found them. The family was worried, because one of the 3 mages was unable to fight, and there was a legend that said only 3 powerful mages could defeat 'Disease'.

When Lucy fell asleep at Natsu's side, Gray talked with them, and they read him the story.

_Story/Legend_

_When Disease again rages the Earth, _

_3 Mages, long after birth,_

_Will join forces, and once and for all,_

_Will cause Disease's mighty throne to fall._

"Wait, so this is the whole thing?" Gray suddenly stood and banged his fist on the table. "THIS IS WHY WE'RE GONAN LOSE NATSU AND LUCY IS LOSY HER SANITY?!" Gray stormed back to Lucy. "Lucy, Lucy!" Lucy jolted awake, and almsot smiled at Gray, but then she remembered, and looked like a fresh river was about to flow. Gray shooshed her and said, "Come on, help me pick up flame-brain, we're LEAVING." The couple began to beg them to help, but Gray insisted on leaving. But as they made their way to the door, it blew open and their stood Disease, as regal as ever. Lucy stiffened and screamed a blood-curling scream, before she collapsed on the wooden floor.

"Lucy!" Gray dropped Natsu (whose head hit the ground with a nauseating 'THUNK') and fell to her side. He looked up to see Disease raise her clawed arm (one of them) and say with her painful voice, "Enough of this 'Disease' nonsence. My name is Byoki, and you shall call me as such." She stepped towards Lucy and licked her lips hungrily. "And I waited FAR too long. Soon, I will devour the last. Living. Heartfilia soul."


	4. Chapter 4: Byoki

Chapter 4: Byoki

Lucy thrashed and screamed in her sleep (or her passed-out-ed-ness) and Gray grabbed her hand.

"Lucy, you're gonna be fine, we're gonna be fine..." Byoki laughed, and Gray turned to glare at her. "What are you going to do to stop me, ice mage? You can do nothing. The only thing you can do to stop my poison from spreading is freezing the heart and circulatory system, and that would kill the person you freeze. No easy outs, or any outs AT ALL for the matter, of this situation, Gray Fullbuster. Disease conquers all." Gray knew her type. She thought her specific talent was all high and mighty, that it was the best of them all. 'Nothing can beat me', 'here let's see some statistics', 'blah blah blah conquers blah blah'. Gray was sick of her royalty speech.

Gray stood and blew into his palms, rubbing them together. Byoki stopped talking for a moment and looked at him quizically. "What are you doing? Won't that make your power useless?" Gray shook his head and smiled a sickly grin. "You say the only was to stop disease is to freeze the circualatory system? Well, I'm rubbing my hands together for warmth. Because it's about to get icy in here."

...

Following that AMAZING pun (Copyright Gray Fullbuster, 2014) there was a fight so busy, with so many 'ice-makes' and 'disease conquers all', that there's no WAY I can write it all down. I'd need a lot of paper, and REALLY good memory. Anyways, lets just say Byoki never saw it coming. But there was still one problem. They had one sick Natsu, and no Wendy.

Lucy woke up in time to see Gray finish Byoki off. She still was terrified of her, who would't be terrified of the thing that killed her mother, but she now knew she had no reason to be. Her 'family' was safe. At least, she THOUGHT it was. Natsu was still on the ground next to her, his head on her lap, coughing every few minutes. She saw what she saw in her mother, she recognized the power of Disease.

Gray slid down to the floor next to Lucy, looking worridly at Natsu. The family payed them and said they were sorry and thank you many times, but none of Team Natsu heard them. At least, not what was left of them.

Lucy didn't let go of Natsu once. They needed to get him somewhere where a healer mage was, but Lucy knew only one person could heal this: Wendy. And last she heard, she was out on a job. Her family had been richer than rich, and had hired mages from all over the world, high class and high dollar mages, all to no avail. Lucy... She couldn't lose Natsu too. She would break, and she knew that. He was her best friend.

Although Gray didn't like that Lucy (very openly) loved Natsu, he was worried about the flame-brain, too. He didn't want to see him die. That didn't mean they were friends or anything!

"Gray..." Gray turned and saw Lucy holding Natsu's hand. "Gray, I don't think- I don't think we can make it in time." She looked close to tears, and Gray did the only thing he could think to do. He kissed her cheek and told her they were going to make it.

She seemed very surprised that he kissed her, and so was Juvia (who had been following them this whole time without lifting a finger to help) fumed silently. Lucy was very thankful for the comfort, but she still furrowed her eyebrows and stared intently at Natsu, as if she could MAKE him recover.

They finally reached the bottom of the hill, Gray shrugging Natsu off his back and laying him on a soft patch of dirt. Lucy sat down next to him and looked around for the quickest and safest route to the train station. There was a longer one, that went through a perfectly safe path, and a shortcut, that went through more woods. Before Gray could even SUGGEST the path, Lucy pulled Natsu up and called Horologium to carry him safely and to keep him away from MORE germs and illness. Goodness knows, he didn't need anymore.

Things were going very smoothly through the forest, when suddenly a man in bright green tights with a little hat hopped down. He had a sword in one hand, and a jar in the other. Lucy looked over at him, and _prayed _that he would leave them alone. Bad luck that Lucy was an atheist.

He sauntered over to them and whistled at Lucy. He smiled a very creepy, toothy smile.

"Oh~~~, Lost Boys!" The jar in his hand shook, and smoky tendrils escaped from cracks and leaks under the lid. "Hey, babe, do you wanna come with us?"


	5. Chapter 5: Peter Pan

Thanks 1N2A3L4U5 for the amazing comment. That made me feel so good!

Chapter 5: Peter Pan

"Hey, babe, do you wanna come with us?" Lucy cursed basically every god/God she could think of, because she was close to tears and she might just kill this kid if he didn't just LEAVE her ALONE. But, NOOOOOO, nothing could EVER go right. And nothing might never go right AGAIN if she couldn't get Natsu back to Fairy Tail.

"Sorry, but I'm in a hurry. And you're not my type." Lucy tried to politely get around him, and Gray followed her after he heaved Natsu back up on his shoulder, but the man grabbed her arm. Something told her she wasn't being given an option. That question was just curtesy. Of course it was, her father always told her not to trust men in tights. They're just weird.

"Oh, that wasn't a question." Gray growled (at least, that's what it sounded like) and laid Natsu on the ground. He grabbed Lucy's other arm. Lucy and Gray had forgotten about the smoke. It started to cloud around them, taking the form of people and... fish? No, wait, those were mermaids... That's a crocodile, or an alligator, or SOMETHING. What were these things?

"Ah, I see you CAN see them! You must be wizards, eh? Tell me, what do you see?" Lucy's mouth seemed to open and close, forming words on their own, like she was being FORCED to talk. "Some people, mermaids, a crocodile, a..." She began to name off things she didn't even see until her own voice said them. The smoky figures seemed to take up the whole clearing. She saw one figure that looked really familiar, but she couldn't quite place who it was...

"Wendy?!" Gray's voice cut through Lucy's like a hot knife, and she stopped talking while the weirdo tight-kid (who was now floating while sitting indian-style- when did THAT happen?) moved to stare at Gray, who looked at him with both curiosity and disgust. "Hmmmm... You can see her?" Gray nodded and started to move towards her, but tight-kid held out a hand. Gray froze, but it didn't seem like he did it with his own mind. "Uh-uh, do that and you'll be sucked into the jar as well. Well, you gonna end up in there ANYway, so what do I care?" Gray moved forward again, and if time restarted for him.

"Anywho, children, my name is Pan. Peter Pan. Ever heard of me?" Lucy snapped her fingers.

"Yea, but you're supposed to be about 10, and your 'lost boys' are supposed to be your friends, who aren't smoke, not your prisoners. And why is Wendy in there? I don't see here." 'Peter Pan' clicked his tongue, and seemed to be remembering something. "If I remember correctly- and my memory is nearly flawless, if I do say so myself- you and Gray are very close in magical power, as only powerful wizards can see nearly captured Lost Boys." Lucy wondered why he called them Lost Boys when Wendy (and probably all the mermaids) were girls. "I used to have a name for these things. Oh, what was it? 'Powerfulness'? No, no, that's not it... Hmm..." Lucy nearly tried to make a run for it, but just as she was going to...

"OH! Yea, I remember now! You're called 'targets'!" Lucy pondered for a second, and then attempted to scream. Key word- _attempted. _Because the smoke was soon curling around her, stealing the oxygen strait from her lungs.

It was all hazy, she thought she was dreaming. She could hear Natsu's voice, saying her name, but for whatever reason, her brain said 'that's impossible'. 'He's dead'.

"Lucy... Lucy... Please, wake up..." Lucy sat up and saw 3... people? Looking down at her were what she THOUGHT to be three people, and a cat. A FLYING cat. "Lucy!" One of them tried to hug her, but she couldn't feel it. She couldn't really feel anything. _Am I dead? _she thought. "Lucy, it's me! Natsu!" The events that took place who-knows-how-long before flashed back to her, and she shrieked.

"Natsu! You're OK!" She looked over at (what she thought was) Gray, and asked "where are we?" He shrugged, but it looked a little weird. A little off. "Why do you guys look like those smoke things?" Another shrug, but (?) Wendy appeared to have an answer.

"We were captured by Peter Pan. We are now some of the hundreds of his 'Lost Boys'. Charle and I were captured about a day ago, its hard to tell time here, but he noticed you a mile away. I tried to warn you by attempting to sneak out of the jar, but a lot of good THAT did you. Natsu was deathly injured, but Lost Boys are immortal. He was instantly healed." Lucy and Gray still had a few questions, but Natsu seemed to want to beat Peter Pan's face in.

"Who is this Peter Pan, exactly?" Wendy seemed a bit hesitent to answer. "Well, I saw a job saying that a 'Peter Pan' was terrorizing a nearby town. So, I took the job for practice. He's really powerful, it's scary. He appears to be a monster of some sort, or a really powerful wizard. The Lost Boys give him power, too. The more he has, the more he can judge a person's power, and he can also control people. He's like a little... I don't know, god." Natsu just grinned deviously.

"Let's fight him!" Everyone said NO, it was clear the only way to get out of this was to excape the jar and this odd, smoky sub-level world. Wendy said some smoke-things had escaped, but she didn't know how.

"Well, looks like Team Natsu's on the case!"


	6. Chapter 6: Escape? or Eternal Darkness?

Chapter 6: Escape? or Eternal Darkness?

Team NaLu (A/N, at the end of the last chapter, I said 'Team Natsu' instead of 'Team NaLu', so SORRY!) had decided to wait until the next wizard came along to get out, as there seemed to be no exit or possible exit until the jar was opened to capture another prisoner. Wendy had almost escaped last time, and the only reason she wasn't successful was because seeing Team NaLu had shocked her out of her focus. There was nothing to shock them anymore, though. They were ready!

Their little area of darkness was now in the trees, as Peter Pan had brought himself and his 'lost boys' up there to wait for his next victem. It'd have to be a fighter, because all seven of them needed the time and focus to excape, otherwise they risked being here forever! According to Wendy, who had been there for a few days, the longer you were there, the darker you got to the outside world. That apparently made it harder to escape, a fact Wendy still hadn't managed to discover how it worked.

They decided to just accept it, and good thing they shifted their focus to Peter Pan and the jar, because someone was passing through the clearing underneath them. They didn't recognize him (it was a boy) so they didn't lose their focus as they neared the jar. The closer they got to the jar, the harder it become to walk, or fly in Happy and Charle's case. Their legs (or wings) felt like they were pushing through mud, they got tired and their brains tried to convince them to stop and rest and move away from what was making them so tired.

Lucy's mind whispered to her, _why don't you go lie down? That grass looks very confortable! _Lucy almost went over there but settled on looking at the grass longingly and trudging on. Happy almost flew towards a nice looking tree, but Natsu grabbed him, and, finally, they reached the jar held precariously in Peter Pan's hand. Natsu stretched out his hand to touch it, and was sucked towards it. He flew right out of the jar. Peter Pan yelled at him to stop and moved to close the jar, but realized that if he did that, he would lose who he was about to catch. Lucy grabbed Wendy and Wendy grabbed Charle, and Gray and Happy went through, followed by the girls.

As soon as they were out, they ran towards Natsu and out of the clearing. They could hear Peter Pan starting to chase them, but for WHATEVER reason, he stopped at the edge of the forest. Natsu and Happy stuck out their tongues at him and Peter Pan growled. He yelled, "You may have left my territory fast enough this time, but think about coming back here and I'll consume you all instead of merely capturing you!" Lucy shivered, and they all ran towards the small mountain village they had passed through earlier in their adventure.

"So, Wendy, how is he?" Lucy looked over at Natsu and Wendy, Wendy currently checking over him one last time to make sure he was COMPLETELY healed. She looked over at Lucy and smiled. "He's all good!" Lucy sighed in relief and Gray literally sighed. Natsu shot up off the floor and breathde fire. "Nothing can defeat me! I've never felt more alive!"

Lucy glanced over at him and gave a small little smile in his direction. Gray caught this and grimaced. He was losing her before he even had a chance to get her.

They set off for home the next morning. They had gotten their payment for their hardships before they left the couple's home, and were about to get back on the train, and Natsu was already beginning his protests.

"Come on, you guys, a good walk would do us some good! Excersise!" Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Even YOU wouldn't want to walk from here to Magnolia. It's a day trip _by train_."

Natsu shook his head. "Nah, you've got it all wrong. Camping! We can camp along the way!" Gray pounded his fist into the ground and picked him up, ignoring the drunken sounding protests as they all boarded the train.

Then the screaming started.


End file.
